At the World’s Largest Tourism Travel Trade Show Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the partner country of this year’s ITB Berlin, presented a new range of tourism attractions. Wolfgang Waldmüller, spokesman for the Tourism Association, presented the join-in festival SeaBorn in Kühlungsborn, the Rostock Cruise Festival, a new cycle route featuring the romantic aspects of Vorpommern and a new, sustainable form of accommodation by the name of sleeperoo. The federal state also unveiled plans for new regional costumes, to be created by none other than the fashion designer Jette Joop.

In the future, travellers to Malaysia can look forward to a much improved flight service. Starting on 5 November 2018 Condor Airlines will be offering direct flights three times a week from Frankfurt/Main to the capital Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia will be the partner country of ITB Berlin 2019 and is working hard to implement the Malaysia Tourism Transformation Plan 2020. The country has set itself the target of boosting visitor numbers to 36 million by 2020 Supporting this effort is the global campaign Visit Malaysia Year 2020.

According to Jean-Francois, the CSR officer at Messe Berlin GmbH in charge of Medical Tourism, interest in this segment has risen sharply in just one year. According to a new study, the industry is forecast to grow annually by 25 per cent over the next ten years, she added. The driving force was low-cost flights and the medical services on offer at holiday destinations which made it possible to combine leisure time and treatment. Due to this year’s vastly increased demand for medical tourism the segment has relocated to Hall 21. An ITB Medical Night is also taking place for the first time on Friday, 9 March, providing destination managers and organisers with an opportunity to network.

Journalists and interested readers can find news on the main topics at the World’s Leading Travel Trade Show posted daily at newsroom.itb-berlin.de/en. The Social Media Newsroom has news in German and English on every travel destination represented at ITB Berlin, plus trends and innovations in aviation, cruises, the hotel industry and travel technology. This news website also has the latest from the ITB Berlin Convention, the leading think tank of the global travel industry.

About ITB Berlin and the ITB Berlin Convention

ITB Berlin 2018 will take place from Wednesday to Sunday, 7 to 11 March. From Wednesday to Friday ITB Berlin is open to trade visitors only. ITB Berlin is the World’s Leading Travel Trade Show. In 2017 a total of 10,000 companies and organizations from 184 countries exhibited their products and services to around 169,000 visitors, who included 109,000 trade visitors. Parallel with the show the ITB Berlin Convention, the largest event of its kind, will be held from Wednesday, 7 to Saturday, 10 March 2018. Admission to the ITB Berlin Convention is free for trade visitors and exhibitors. More details are available at www.itb-berlin.com, www.itb-convention.com and at ITB Social Media Newsroom.